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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



Rev, Bishop G, H. Fowler, D.D„ LL.D, 



[Delivered at the Grant mtmorial services held in the Mechanics' Pavilion, San Francisco, 
(.'nl., August 3, 1885, by special direction of the Mayor and city authorities.] 



As Orioinai.c.y PriiLisuKD IN California Christian AnvocATE, 
August 12, 1885. 



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SAN lUAXt I>Cl). CAL. : 
'jiF Ml IHODIsr HOOK. DKPOSnORV 

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MEMORIAL ADDRESS 



Rev. Bishop C, H, Fowler, D,D„ LL.D, 



I DclivereJ at the Grant memorial services htki in the Mechanics' Pavilion, San Franci^co, 
Cal., August 8, 1885, by special direction of the Mayor and city authorities.] 



As ORIUIN.AI.I.V riBLlSHKI) IN CALIFORNIA CHRISTIAN ADVOCA IT 

August 12, 1885. 



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SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.: 

M K r H O D I S T BOOK D E P O S 11' O R \" . 

1885. 






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QKNERAL GRANT. 

MEMORIAL ADDRESS. 



mill. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FELLOW-CITI- 
^k ZENS, COUNTRYMEN: Six years ago in September, California, 
the golden-haired maiden of the setting sun, on behalf of her sister 
commonwealths, welcomed through the Golden Gate, from his triumiDhal 
march round the world, the greatest living son of the great Eepublic. Yon- 
der bay swarmed with a fleet flowering with flags and freighted with free- 
men; j'onder shores pufted and thundered with rejoicing cannon; yonder 
hillsides and housetops quivered with human faces. Through these streets, 
covered with flags and shields, a quarter of a million of people crowded, and 
shouted their welcome to the hero from Appomattox. From bej-ond the 
desert and from beyond the mountains, from all the hills and valleys beneath 
the stars and stripes, fifty millions of free citizens answered back our shout. 
California will never forget that Saturday. Fellow-citizens, how changed 
are our surroundings on this Saturday! Yonder bay is quiet as a midnight 
in the mountains; yonder cannon sleep, like the disciples, as if for soitow; 
yonder hillsides and housetops are as barren as the desert. Those streets 
mourn beneath their sable drapery; and the thousands of our citizens 
march, with mnflBed drums and trailing flags, to join the stricken nation at 
the grave of our hero. Federal and Confederate officers. Northern and 
Southern cities, republican and monarchiral governments, men of all faiths 
and of all trades, princes and peasants, war-worn veterans and little chil- 
dren, unite in the common soitow. Badges of mourning are displayed in 
all the capitals and cities of the world. England's army and navy float the 
Union jack at half-mast. Her muffled drum-beat encircles the globe. By 
the instinct of the people, her bands forbear their joyous notes, and join in 
the universal dirge; and Westminster Abbey, crowded with the renowned of 
the kingdom, rings with eloquent an<I unstinted praise, from her great 
preacher, gladly bestowed upon this modest man, once a "leather-seller of 
Galena." From all lands, and over all seas, come the throb of sympathy 
and the sob of sorrow. For General Grant belongs to the race, and the 
world will be lonesome without him. 



4 GEXERAL GRANT. 

We recall with pride that he walked these streets, a fellow-citizen, away 
liack ia the early "fifties" — almost a "forty-niner." We remember with 
grateful hearts that his love for this new laud never waned, and that he 
said, in the directue-s of his constant candor: "The only promotion that I 
ever rejoiced in was when I was made Major-General in the Regiilar Army. 
I was happy in that because it made me Junior Major-General, and I hoped 
when the war was over that I could live in California. I had been yearning 
for the opportunity to return to California, and I saw It in that promotion." 

There is a place yonder in our Coast Range, called "Sky Land," where, 
surrounded by clear sunlight, one may look down upon the mists of the 
Pacific, and see the coast line and the nestling towns and cities. Before us 
to-day rises another peak. Mount McGregor. It towers above the cloud 
line. It pierces the eternal silence. It is clothed with undimmed light. 
It is crowned with the splendor of spotless purity. It is blessed with per- 
petual peace. It is hallowed with the divine footsteps; for there the good 
man has met his God. Let us ascend that mount, and, exalted above in- 
dividual interests, sectional strifes and party preiudices, let us reverently 
study the great character before us, and be thus enlarged by his greater 
measurements, steadied by his firmness, strengthened by his integrity, in- 
spired by his patriotism, and adorned by his simplicity. 

The scaffolding in which this great God-called, God-anointed, God- 
smitten life was builded is easily presented. Ulysses S. Grant was born of 
Jesse Root Grant and Mary Simpson Grant (pious, fighting, Scotch blood), 
April 27, 1822; entered the Military Academy at West Point July 1, 1839; 
graduated June 30, 1843, and immediately assigned to the Fourth Infantry; 
entered VIexico as Brevet Second Lieutenant, under General Taylor, in 
May, 1846; was in his first battle, at Palo Alto, May 8, 1846; married to 
Miss Julia B. Dent August 22, 1848; came to California in 1852; resigned 
July 31, 1854; experimented for a time for a living as a coal-dealer, real 
estate auctioneer and farmer; returned to his father's home in Galena, 111., 
in 1859, where he clerked iu a leather store till the firing on Sumter. In 
April, 186], he was a clerk in the Governor's office, Springfield, 111.; was made 
Colonel of Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers in June, 1861; Brigadier-Gen- 
eral. July, 1861; Major-General, 1863; Lieutenant-Geueral, March 9, 1864; 
Oeneral, July 25, 1866; elected President of the United States, November, 
1868, and November, 1872; went around the world in 1877-79. At 8 o'clock 
a'ld 10 minutes. Eastern time, Julj' 23, 1885, he received his supreme pro- 
motion. 

' On Fame's eternal camping-ground. 
His silent t-nt is spread, 
Ana Glory guards, with tolemn round, 
The bivouac of the dead." 

This rule scaffolding contains a most majestic and magnificent struct- 
ure. It is too new, and we are too near it, to give it a just and generous 



MEMORIAL ADDKENS. 5 

award. The stone-cutters in the Parthenon were blinded by the dust of 
the chiseling, so they could not comprehend the symmetrical and imposing 
temple that had alighted from the brain of Ictinus upon the hills of Athens. 
But all the centuries since have seen it. So we are blinded by the dust 
from the little blocks at which we have been chiseling. We can poorly ap- 
preciate the sj'mmetry and magnificence of the structure which has been 
builded in our midst and before our eyes. 

We must, this day, recount some of his achievements. Look at the 
adversary against whom we sent him into the arena. Four months after 
the firing on Sumter the Southern Confederacy seemed as firmly estabhshed 
as if it had stood for centuries. It had more territory than any state in 
Europe, save Russia; larger than the empire of Napoleon at its best, with a 
fertile soil filling the marts of the world with products which the world 
must have; with thousands of miles of water front, where all the fleets of 
the earth could anchor; with vast mountain ranges, with their impenetrable 
fastnesses; with marshes and bayous that could swallow all the armies of 
strangers that might venture into them; with vast regions more wild and 
difficult of access than was Gaul to the legions of Coesar; with a brave and 
warlike people, born of the conquering race, counted by millions; with 
leaders of great ability, and renown, and confidence; with munitions of 
war the most perfect and abundant; with a resistance against the Federal 
forces that had been nourished and strengthened for three generations; with 
millions of obedient and devoted slaves who had supported the people in 
luxury for a century, and could support them in the frugalities of camp life 
for ten centuries; with out-spoken friends in every court and cabinet of 
Europe; more important still, with a great host of friends who had done 
the bidding of the South for years in every State and community of the 
North — the Confederacy, thus planted, manned, armed, equipped, lead, in- 
spired and encouraged, rose at once as a mighty nation into the midst of all 
the nations of the earth. It was the most widely extended, most numer- 
ously accepted, most thoroughly organized, most solidly compacted, most 
ably offlcered, most lavishly enriched, most intelligently defended and most 
terribly purposed rebellion known to history. Against this colossal power, 
crouching among the jungles of the South, fattening on the poisonous ex- 
halations of a hostile climate, and under the burning edge of a tropical 
sun, we sent forth our captain from the leather store of Galena, into a 
struggle that could be ended not by any possible treaty, but only by the 
utter destruction of the enemy. In four years he marched from Paducah 
to Appomattox, threading every river and brooklet, wading every bayou 
and marsh, scaling every mountain and hillock, walking every beach and 
landing, seizing every harbor and inlet, sinking every ironclad and gun- 
boat, taking every city and hamlet, conquering every army and legion, cap- 
turing every officer and soldier, utterly annihilating the colossal structure 



6 OEXERAL GRANT. 

of the Confederacy, till the amazed nations of the earth wondered at the 
nightmare that had held them, and hastened to make peace with the chief- 
tain who had disappointed their hopes. 

Every step of this man's long march for the rescue of the Kepublic is 
•worth most careful study. But in the brief time proper for this service 
only a few things may be recalled and relived. Paducah, his first engage- 
ment against the Rebellion, showed the presence of the great General as 
certainly as did Mission Eidge. Quickly done, even before authority 
reached him from Fremont, it opened the Ohio river and quieted the talk 
about neutrality in Kentucky, and furnished Grant's first important public 
document, in which he distinguished between acts and ideas, soldiers and 
citizens. 

Donelson, which Grant called "our first clear victory," marked a new 
era in the issue between the North and the South. It transformed the strife 
from a parade into a war. It demonstrated the ability of raw Western vol- 
unteers to endure and win, under any circumstances, when properly led. 
It sent North thousands of prisoners, more than had ever been taken at 
once in any field since the surrender of Ulm to Bonaparte. It broke the 
strategical line of defense of the sacred soil of the South. Immediately 
Bowling Green was abandoned. Nashville surrendered without a blow. 
Impregnab'e Columbus, which held the Mississippi and threatened the Ohio, 
was deserted, Missouri was secured, Kentucky was practically freed from 
invaders, and Tennessee was restored to the Union. Well might this bat- 
tle, where we learned about "unconditional surrender," give new spirit to 
the army and the country, and turn all eyes upon the silent soldier whose 
form and face will never be forgotten. 

Vicksburg was called by Jefterson Davis "the Gibraltar of America." 
It is situated on a plateau two hundred and fifty feet high, surrounded by 
ravines and marshes and the Mississippi river. The strategic campaign of 
the war was for its capture. The dark days of the war were from January 
2, 1863, after the repulse of Sherman on the Yazoo, to July 4, 1863, when 
Vicksburg surrendered. These were the days that taxed the faith of public 
men and the patriotism of private citizens. These were the days when 
Grant's supreme military genius and magnificent qualities of character were 
displayed. The campaign was designed to dismember the Confederacy, and 
open the Mississippi for national uses. It must be done before the end 
could be reached. Done, the end must follow. Grant set himself about it in 
the one campaign which he afterward, in the quiet review of more perfect 
knowledge, pronounced "the campaign which I do not now see how to im- 
prove." 

In the first eighteen days of May, 1863, Grant, pushing toward Vicks- 
burg, won five important battles, took forty field guns and nearly 5,000 
prisoners, killed and wounded 5,200 of the enemy, separated the Southern 



Mf;MORIAl. AI)1>RE.S.S. / 

armies, aggregating 60,000, captured one fortified capital city, destroyed the 
railroads and bridges, and made the investment of Vicksburg complete, and 
sat down to reduce the stronghold by siege. This taxed him more than 
anything he had yet done. The tide was running toward the Confederacy. 
Grant and Sherman, with their invincible Western fighters, had been 
checked and foiled. The Army of the Potomac was continuing its defeats 
and its experiments in commanders. Ohio and Pennsylvania w. re terror- 
stricken at the aivaace of Bragg tow,ird Louisville. The Cjnfederate 
armies were advancing everywhere. The peace-at-any-price party in the 
North were gaining victories in the elections. European writers pronounced 
the Union destroyed, and mankind relieved from a dangerous republic. 
France stretched forth a helping hand to monarchical ambition in Mexico. 
England was growing rich in building hostile ironclads, and in blockade- 
running, and in buying Confederate bonds. Ambassadors from Richmond 
scorned our representatives and intrigued against th< m in every court of Eu- 
rope. Confusion prevailed in Wash ngton. The Government was unpopular^ 
The North was divided. The national credit was nearly gone; gold reached 
almost 300. The tropical sun was marching up from the south to reinforce 
the Confederate armies. Surely, these were weighty reasons for the speedy 
capture of Vicksburg. No mortal can measure the pressure on Grant as he 
bent his energies to the task in hand. Pemberton, with his brave warriors 
inside this Gibraltar, menaced him in front. The wise and skillful Johns- 
ton, with an increasing host 40,000 stong, threatened his rear. Entrenched 
on both sides against two powerful armies, far away from his friends, in 
the heart of the enemy s country, he went patiently about the work. 
Night and day the operations of the siege were pushed. Parallels and 
trenches were opened at every available point, batteries were planted, heavy 
guns from the fleet were borrowed and mounted on land duty, roads were 
made, siege materials were prepared, mines were sunk, and towers for 
hharjishooters were built. Across the gulches, and through the ravines, 
and round the hillsides, and up to the very walls, day by day, and night by 
night, the encircling lines of burnished sleel and fire made their remorseless 
way. Pressed by the awful gravity of the situation, slandered and ma- 
ligned by open and concealed foes in the North, distrusted by nearly all in 
Washington save Lincoln and Stanton, this silent, unwavering man pushed 
his way up to the very gates of Vicksburg, and on July 4, 1803, pushed 
them open, never again to be closed against the stars and stripes. This 
campaign, exhausting all the inventions and appliances of the most perfect 
w;ir science, had had no equal since the campaign of Hannibal against 
Eome, and, standing alone, would stamp its author as a militarj- genius of 
the highest order. 

It was in acknowledgment of ''the almost inestimable service done" by 
Grant for 'the country" in this campaign that Lincoln wrote the famous 



S OEXERAL GRANT. 

letter, which did such justice to Grant and honor to Lincoln, in which he 
said: "When you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was 
a mistake. I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were 
right and I was wrong." 

Chattanooga and Mission Eidge soon followed Vicksburg, and Grant, 
silent, modest, simple, with a glorious record, went over the mountains to 
take charge of the war. He had captured 472 cannon, 90,000 prisoners 
and 100,000 stand of arms. When he asked Mr. Lincoln why he, instead 
of General Sherman, was chosen for the command of the Potomac Army, 
which he did not wish, Mr. Lincoln replied: "You are the only man who 
has fought twenty-seven great battles and gained tweuty-seven great vic- 
tories. The country believes in yoat, and will bear anything; and the army 
believes in you, and will do anything." 

In this age of vast commercial enterprises, we may underestimate gifts 
that cannot be exchanged in the mart or put up as collateral on the board. 
Carthage had a population of 700,000. She had rich dependencies in 
Africa, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and Spain. She worked the silver mines 
of Spain and the tin mines of Britain. She sent vessels into the Baltic, and 
caravans to the Nile and the Niger. Yet she has furnished for posterity only 
one gi-eat man. That is Hannibal, her gi-eat soldier; and his history was 
written by strangers. Such a man as Grant is worth more to a nation than 
can be estimated in dollars and cents. 

Grant is essentially great in all great matters. The qxialities of his mind 
were such that he was moved only by the substance of things. Asa student, 
he won gi-eatest credit in the heavy branches — mathmetics, engineering and 
fort-constructing. In his gi-eat campaigns he seized as if by the instinct of 
an infallible genius the points of advantage. He saw what was to be done. 
What more important points than Paducah, controlling the mouth of the 
Ohio; Shiloh, practically guarding Kentucky and Tennessee; Vicksburg, the 
gate of the Mississippi; Chattanooga, the key to Georgia and Alabama! He 
saw distinctly, exactly what was to be done. He said to Bismarck: "We 
were fighting an enemy with whom we could not make a peace. We had to 
destroy him; no convention, no treaty, was possible— only destruction.' 
This clear statement contains the secret of his war policy, and made his brill- 
iant career only a question of time and opportunity. 

In the East he set himself to destroy Lee's army. He said: •■The problem 
of the war is not to take Kichmond, but to destroy the militarj' jjower of Lee's 
army." He said to a friend, as he went out to confront Lee: "It is a ques- 
tion of numbers and supplies. Lee has 100,000 men; I have 150,000. I shall 
kill as many of his men as he does of mine. By and by he will have oO,000 
and I will have a 100,000. Then I shall capture him." And he did. He 
says in his i-eport as Lieutenant-General, July 22, 186"): "From an earlj' 
period in the rebellion, I had been impressed with the idea that . active and 



MEMORIAL ADKUKSS. 

continuous operation of all the troops that could be brought into the field, re 
(jardless of season and weather, were necessary to a speedy termination to the 
war. * * * From the first I was firm in the conviction that no jieace 
could be had that would be stable and conducive to the happiness of the peo- 
ple, both North and South, until the military power of the rebellion was en- 
tirely broken. I therefore determined, first, to use the greatest number of 
troops practicable against the armed force of the enemy. ^ « * Second, 
to hammer continuousli/ against the armed force of the enemy and his re- 
sources, until, by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing 
left to him but submission to the Constitution and laws of the land." These 
profound convictions dictated his famous statement to General Meade: "Gen- 
eral Lee is our objective point." 

General Lee was the favorite general of the South, and his army the center 
of the military power of the South. So, when General Grant took command 
i>f all the armies of the Union, he formed one plan, covering all the countiy 
and reaching every officer and soldier. Every soldier had his face set toward 
Lee"s army. Meade on the Kapidan, Sherman on the Tennessee, Butler on 
the James, Sigel in West Virginia, and even Banks in Louisiana, were to 
pash on from whatever direction, against whatever obstacles, toward Lee's 
army. Thus, from the day he left the Kapidan, it was a constant, persistent, 
desperate, resistless purpose, at all costs, to wipe out Lee's army. A repulse 
was nothing provided it had cost the enemy a fair amount of men to jiroduce 
it. The order was simple, "Fight along the whole line!" From Spottsylva. 
uia, after six days of awful fighting, he telegraphed Secretary Stanton: ••/ 
propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." 

After thirty days of "continuous hammering" he had so wasted Lee's army 
by attrition that retreat within the defenses of Eichmond was a necessity. 
Then followed the gathering in of all the gieat armies, till, at Appomattox, 
everything gave way before the continuous hammering of Grant. 

It is difficult to comprehend the vast numbers which this |_man handled 
and met. The Confederacy had, at its best, January 1, 18G3, 750,000 available 
men. The Union available force was 1,000,000. The North sent into the 
st'rvice during the war 2, (i.'>0,.'>.')3. History certifies no such armies. Napo- 
leon raised in France, duiing three years, only 1,200,000. Alexander fought 
his great battle of Arbela with 60,000 men. Hannibal started from Carthage 
with 102,000, but he reached Italy with only 2G,000. Napoleon had only 
72, ( 00 men at Waterloo. Grant took 75,000 prisoners in Virginia alone, 
and killed and wounded nearly as many more. 

The quality of these armies is as important as the quantity. Since Wa- 
terloo the modes of warfare have been revolutioriized by the invention of bet- 
ter weapons. Before Waterloo Frederick lost in his battles 0.1842 (percent); 
the Austrians, in seven battles, 0.1117; the French, in nine Napoleon battles, 
0.2238: all parties at Waterloo, 0.40. Since that battle the Germans, in eight 



10 GENERAL GRANT. 

battles, have lost 0.11; the Austriaus, in two battles. 0.08; the French, in 
nine battles, 0.08; the English, in four battles, 0.10. In onr civil war, in 
eleven battles, the Union forces lost 0.1289, and the Confederate forces lost 
0.1416. Modern wars have furnished no soldiers with the courage and en- 
durance of these Americans. These gi-eat armies were made of the best 
metal. They could endiire continuoias hammering and go into a spiral scab- 
bard. 

Any just estimate of Grant's abilities must include proper notice of his 
endurance of assaults and misrepresentations. He is the best abused man in 
American history. He seems to have marched straight up to the highest po- 
sitions without a single faltering step; and he did. But it was in spite of 
the most bitter and constant and nialicioi;s detractions. He advanced as the 
ocean steamer does, in spit* of the tides and the storms. Every step of his 
■way was gained in spite of bitter opposition from men who ought to have 
helped him. After Fort Donelson his chief gave the credit to an inferior 
officer, recommended an unknown man for promotion, removed Grant from 
his command, and put him, practically, under arrest. After Corinth, where 
he defeated Johnson and Beauregard, and drove back the Confederate advance 
in the west, he was neglected, criticised, maligned. Through the long cjim- 
paign against Vicksburg every effort was made to supersede him. This would 
have been done but for the hard sense of President Lincoln, who said: "I 
rather like the man, and I griess we'll try him a little longer.'" Throiigh all 
his public life he was slandered and maligned almost beyond human endur- 
ance. Yet, through it all he remained the same patient, silent, magnanimous, 
patriotic man. 

I olice asked him, "Why do you endure so silently? The peoj)le will be- 
lieve what you say.'" He rei:)lied: "Perhaps my habit of silence was con- 
fii-med (if it needed confirming; it is naturally strong) more by a story told 
me by Henry Clay than by anything else. Clay was anxious for the Whigs 
to cany Kentucky. A certain mountain district was needed, so Clay's friends 
persuaded an old planter, a high-minded, honorable man, who had nevei 
toiiched public life, to accept the nomination for the Legislati;re. with the 
promise that he should have nothing to do with the campaign. All went 
well till a short time before the election, when a company of Whigs called 
on this old planter, and told him that his opponents were saying that ^vhen 
you gather in your hogs in the fall you are not quite careful enough to gather 
in only your own.' 'What! do they accuse me of stealing hogs?' 'Well, not 
exactly, but that you are not careful enough.' '."t is a base lie.' 'Yes, we 
know that; but the voters at the other end of the district do not know it." 
'Well, I Avill go down and tell them"; and that he did." Grant asked Clay 
how it came out. Clay said, "Oh, they earned the district liy about the 
usual majority. They proved it on him." Grant added: "Phis stoiy has 
greatly affected my political life. Suppose I deny their falsehoods; it will 



MKMORIAI, ADURKSS. H 

not take long to Hiul witnesses to swear to them. Then the case apparently 
goes to the public on the evidence. No; I do not fear falsehoods." 

Nothing has more siu-prised the nation and the world in this simple, 
silent, plain man than his wondrous speeches and jn-oductions. He proves 
to be a most delightful, instractive and fascinating conversationalist. He 
meets every occasion, all the world round, with exactly the right speech and 
the appropriate action. Smalley of the Tribune says: "I never heard a more 
perfect speech of its kind than his Guild Hall speech." He speaks every- 
where, yet seldom repeats himself. His style is terse, clear, and in the best 
English. 

His letters to his subordinate commanders are models of simplicity and 
clearness. There are no places for questions. No man of our time, not 
even President Lincoln, has coined so many ringing sentences, that must 
pass current as long as the English language is spoken. Who can forget his 
reply to General Buckuer at Donelson, "No terms other than unconditional 
and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately 
upon your works'; his telegi-am to Stanton from Spottsylvania, "I propose to 
fight it out on this line if it takes all summer"? His telegram, while Presi- 
dent, to an officer in New Orleans who was reporting in detail every order 
he gave, rings like the old orders-"Put down the rebellion, and \-eport 
afterward." We remember his statement during one of his visits to the 
South, when the colored people crowded to see him, and wanted to touch 
him. The guards kept them back. Grant said, '-Let them come; where I 
am they can come." We shall not forget the benediction at the end of his 
inaugural, "Let us have peace." 

If the accurate apprehension of the entire case, a clear conception of 
the course to be pursued, and a wise adjustment of means for the ends to 
be reached; if the forming the most comprehensive and far-reaching plans, 
the combination of varied campaigns in one majestic system, the selection 
of exactly right men for each subordinate place, the accurate determination 
of what might be done by each army and division in a given time so as to 
bring them to a common point at a given moment; if the control of the 
largest armies the world ever saw, the fighting of the greatest number of 
great battles without a single defeat, the conquering of the greatest hosts of 
the best fighting race known to history, the taking of the greatest number 
of prisoners ever taken in a single w.r, marching armies through a hostile 
country farther than Napoleon marched going to Msscow, and farther than 
Hannibal marched in coming into Italy; if the patient and uncomplaining 
endurance of the most malicious representations, without being turned aside 
one moment from the great work entrusted to him. nor from the most gen- 
erous magnanimity even toward ma'iguers, where the requirements of °the 
public service would permit, walking on in sublime and silent solitude, un- 
mindful alike of pestering assaults and Parthian arrows; if to wnte orders 



12 GENERAL IJKANT. 

and reports aggregating volumes, under all the disadvantages of camp life, 
and iia all the weariness of marches, sieges and battles, and to produce con- 
tributions to current literature, and volumes of standard and permanent 
history, and put them into the purest and best English, with the simplest 
and clearest construction, destined to a place among the classics of the lan- 
guage; if to speak to the most varied audiences of peasants, farmers, mer- 
chants, bankers, statesmen, cabinets, monarchs, all the world round, always 
showing an accurate knowledge of the subject in hand, and perfect mastery 
of the situation, winning golden laurels in all fields— if these unprecedented 
achievements, wrought with the steadiest hand and most unchanging coun- 
tenance ever seen in public affairs, never doubting before the greatest diffi- 
culties, never shrinking under the heaviest burdens, never fearing in the 
midst of the greatest perils, never exulting over the greatest triumphs, never 
being elated by the greatest glory, never flinching under the most intense 
suffering, remaining always the same simjDle, quiet, reposeful man; if, ac- 
cording to Gods standard— judged by "deeds done in the body"— these 
things are to be estimated in the measure of greatness, then we are com- 
pelled to acknowledge that we are in the presence of the greatest military 
genius of all time, and one of the very few greatest characters of aU ages. 

It is difficult to analyze the character of General Grant, because it is so 
simple and so complete. It is like a sphere approached ft om any side; it 
seems always to project farthest toward you. Try to divide, and each sec- 
tion is like all the rest. Cut through it, and it is all the way through alike. 
We can only catalogue his distinguishing characteristics. His leading 
characteristic in mind is practical reason; in will, firmness; in moral nature, 
integrity; in rehgious nature, loyalty to duty; in emotional nature, love of 
family, fidelity to friends, and sympathy with humanity; in faith, New 
Testament Christianity; in manner, simplicity; in bearing, dignity; in schol- 
arship, a mastery of English and of his caUiug; in achievement, a military 
genius; in the abiding motives for action, patriotism; in poise, absolute 
courage; in general make-up, preternatural endurance; and in all things, 
a man— "the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say 
to all the world, 'This is a man.'' " aye, and such a man that, taken "all in 
all, we shall not see his like again." 

One must think of integrity whenever Grant's name is mentioned. It 
'is the foundation of his great nature. Even in his campaigns you search 
in vain for anything to start the question whether it is ever right to deceive. 
He went South to destroy and wipe out from the face of the earth the 
Southern Confederacy, and he went straight at it. He did not even like 
strategy. It was repugnant to his genuineness. He said to General Meiggs: 
"I do not believe in strategy, in the popular understanding of the term. I 
use it to get up just as close to the enemy as pos^sible with as little loss a.s 
possible. Then it is, 'Up, guards, and at them!' " When he did not wish 



MKMORIAI, ADDRESS. ]'.i 

to tell anything ho did not tell something else; he simply kept silent 

He said, late in life, that he never tried but once in his life to do an ex- 
pedient thing, for the sake of party, against his judgment. That was con- 
cerning the inflation bill. He wrote a message trying to satisfy himself that 
it was right to sign it, arid so save the Republican party in the West. All 
his Western friends were urgent, but he could not satisfy his convictions; 
so he wrote another message vetoing the bill. This absolute integrity, ab- 
solute honesty, absolute loyalty to the convictions of duty, cannot be over- 
emphasized among us. Show me a man with this loyalty to truth, and I 
will show you the highest type of man. He is certain to become a Chris- 
tian man in the substantial and only abiding sense of the word. "There is 
a light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Loyalty to 
this light finds always that il grows brighter and blighter, even unto the 
perfect day. 

I know of no sublimer picture than that of General Grant, advanced 
in years, having been betrayed by friends, handing over his fortunes and his 
home, with the treasures and gifts of a grateful world, to a man who could 
not possibly need them, simply because it was honest; taking on his arm 
his wife, and walking with her again down into poverty, and there sitting 
down with a bandage about his aching head, and a horrible and mortal 
disease clutching his throat, patiently, uncomplainingly, with his pen, 
earning daily bread for his family. My heart feels a great ache when I look 
at him who had saved us all when we were bankrupt in treasure and in 
leaders, and see him thus beset by woes and wants. .But I am reconciled to 
the strange providence when I see the "Form of the Fourth" in the fur- 
nace, and see that he has added to all his other gifts to us and our children 
this magnificent example of honesty and his "memoirs." Historv furnishes 
no sublimer picture. General Grant was the truest man we ever saw. 

Grant embodied firmness He could not be other than firm with his 
clear convictions of duty, and with his stout, fighting Scotch blood, which 
had been marching for five hundred years under the old clan motto, ' 'Stand 
fdst, stand Jirm, stand .su?'e." These old Scotch chiefs asserted themselves 
whenever Ulysses got into the thick of the battle, and the crisis threatened 
to turn the wrong way. Then he was more resolute and unwavering than 
ever. It gave supreme quietness to his courage. He could stand in the 
face of the most terrible storm of death, and never show the slightest con- 
cern. There are onlj"^ three characters known to history who were abso- 
lute strangers to fear. They are Lord Nelson, and John Brown, and 
General Grant. 

This firmness, guided by hi-t intelligence, made him self -reliant. This 
is essential to manhood. No man ever is very strong who is not self-poised. 
At Belmont, when an oflicer, in alarm, ran to him, saying, " General, we 
are surrounded," he reassured all by saying, "Then we can cut our way out 



14 GENERAL GRANT. 

as we cut our way in." After Belmont, though an unknown brigadier, he 
telegraphed to Halleek: "With permission, I will take and hold Fort 
Henry." After tardy permission came, he telegraphed to Halleek: "Fort 
Henry is ours. I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th." 

After the battle of Five Forks, Grant, wrapped in his blue overcoat, sat 
out in front of his tent, awaiting news from Sheridan. Two or three staff 
officers sat with him in the wet woods. Presently a messenger from Sheri- 
dan said, "Five Forks is won!" Graat listened, went alone into his tent, 
wrote an order, sent away an orderly, and, coming out, remarked, quietly, 
"I have ordered an attack all along the line." His whole career is full of 
these displays of his greatness. After Corinth, Buell criticisf d him for 
fighting with the Tennessee river between him. Be said, "You could not 
retreat." Grant said, "We did not want to retreat." "But your plans 
might have failed, and you had transportation for only 10,000 of your 
40,000 men." Grant replied, "By the time we would have retreated the 
transports would have carried all there would have been left of us." 

It is refreshing to study this n\an' a patriotism. He offered his services 
to the Government in Springfield over and over again, only to have them 
refused. At last he was granted a jjlace at a clerk's desk, and rejoiced that 
he was doing something for the defense of the country. After Shiloh he 
was stripped of all command, and practically put under arrest. Yet he did 
what he could to aid his superiors. After he was again restored to the serv- 
ice, he wrote General Halleek: "I will again assume command, and give 
every effort for the success of the carise. Under the worst circumstances, I 
would do the same." His soul burned with unabating zeal for the country. 
When starting on his journey around the world, he said: "I believe firmly 
that if our country ever comes into trial again young men will spring up 
eqiial to the occasion; and if one fails there will be another to take his 
place." Again he said: "If our country could be saved or ruined by the efforts 
of one man, we should not have a countiy. What saved the Union was the 
coming forward of the young men of the nation. They came from their 
homes and their fields as they did in the time of the Revolution, giving 
everything to the country." 

No man more clearly than General Grant saw the one supreme ligiire of 
the war — the common soldier. He lias dedicated his "Memoirs" to "the 
American soldier and sailor." As we look upon the luminous history of this 
struggle, the first form that comes out of the smoke of battle and rises in 
the chariot of fire before our weeping eyes is that supreme j^atriot — the com- 
mon soldier, who, at the first tap of the war drum, sprang from the coiach of 
his ease and the home of his comfort, armed amid the gathering darkness of 
impending peril, took a hastj' farewell of his wife and loved ones, and went 
forth to hunt for masked batteries in the darkness, and to die, if need be, 
a ther than survive his imperiled liberties; who actually bared his bosom to 



MKMORIAl, AKDKKSS. lo 

stoniis of iron and rows of glistening steel; who did press over the breast- 
works, and nish across slippery fields, and stand mute under hostile guns; 
who did actually stand in death's highway that the Republic might be saved. 
We dx) see, first of all, and, in the impartial judgment of infinite equity, 
above ail, the supreme patriot of the war— the common soldier. Honor to 
whom honor is due. Grant said: "The humblest soldier who carried a 
musket is entitled to as much credit for the result of the war as those who 
were in command." 

The luster of this gi-eat man is increased by his love of peace. He said 
in Guild Hall: "Although a soldier bj' education and jirofession, I have 
never felt any sort of fondness for war, and have never advocated it except 
as a means of peace." He said to the Peace Society in Birmingham: "It 
has been my misfortune to be engaged in more battles than any other gen- 
eral on the other side of the Atlantic; but there never was a time during my 
command when I would not have gladly chosen some settlement by reason 
rather than by the sword." Listen to his words to Bismarck — "The tnithis, I 
am more of a farmer than a soldier; I take little interest in military affairs; and 
althoiigh I entered the army thirtj'-five years ago, and have been in two 
wars, I never went into the army without regi'et, and never retired without 
pleasure." I remember how he emphasized his satisfaction over the treaty 
of Washington, by which the Alabama claims were settled without a war. 
He said to me: "I regard that as the first of a long series to follow which 
will iiltimately supersede war. England and the United States are so far ad- 
vanced that such settlements are possible. Soon Germany will join in this 
policy. When two or three more nations come up to this level thej' will not 
allow the other nations to go to war." How simple he made the way appear 
for the coming of that time when wars shall be no more! 

There is no side of this wonderful character that does not chanu us as 
we study it. Throiigh all" the changes of his most eventful life he remained 
the same simple, modest, tender, sympathetic man. He was too great to 
waste his strength in ostentation. His gentle nature was drawn to little 
children, and they ran after him in our streets, and clung to him in our 
homes. He was as ma(/nani»iOits as he was gi-eat. When necessary, he or- 
dered Sheridan to "lay waste the valley of Virginia, " and he treated the 
problem of the war as a (juestion of killing so many of the enemy. Yet we 
see him writing to Lee, beseeching him to save the anuies from further 
slaughter. And we see him giving terms to the vanquished that captivated 
the cai)tured and amazed the world. Only the other day he directed his 
piiblishers to put Rosecrans' picture into his book, saying, "I will not allow 
.my personal feeling to enter into such a matter." To-day, as the Union 
and Confederate soldiers mingle their tears over his bier, and recall his great- 
ness, there comes up one voice from the sunny South, that vast battle-field, 
saying, "Thy gentleness hath made me gi-eat." 



16 GENERAL GRANT. 

It bardly seems necessary to proclaim General Grant a Christian. It 
goes without saying after such a life as his, so quiet, so gentle, so just, so 
so full of integrity, so rich in Christian faith and in saving work. Those 
who knew him most intimately never heard him utter a profane or vulgar 
word. Sweet water does not flow from a bitter fountain. He was a regular 
attendant upon church. He told Senator Stanford that he never had a 
doubt of the immortality of the soul. He was a firm believer in Divine 
Providence. He said to Mr. Lincoln, in the presence of his Cabinet, when 
he received his appointment as Lieutenant-Geueral, speaking of the perform- 
ance of his duties: "And I know that if they are met, it will be due to 
those armies, and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads 
both nations and men. " When he was Colonel of the '21st Illinois Volun- 
teers, he gave all the aid possible to secure the uniform observance of reli- 
gious services. As his mess gathered around the table, he said: "Chaplain, 
when I was at home and ministers were stopping at my house, I always in- 
vited them to ask a blessing at the table. I suppose a blessing is as much 
needed here as at home, and if it is agreeable with your views, I should be 
glad to have j'ou ask a blessing every time we sit down to eat." You all 
remember those simple words written on a card the other day, when he 
could not use his voice, and handed to a Catholic priest who called on him, 
expressing the strongest faith in all the denominations based upon the 
Scripture, of the Old and New Testaments, and gratitude for the prayers 
of all Christians. 

A tender and touching word to his son, Colonel Fred. Grant, comes to 
us out of his fatherly heart, showing what estimate he placed upon right 
living. He says: "I had rather see you suffer as I suffer now than see you 
abandoned to any vice." We are fully prepared to read his words to Dr. 
Douglas about his willingness and readiness to go hence: 

"If it is within God's providence that I should go now, I am ready to 
obey his call without a murmur. I should prefer to go now to enduring 
my present suffering for a single day, without hope of recovery. As I have 
stated, I am thankful for the providential extension of my time to enable 
me to continue my work. I am further thankful, and in a much gi-eater 
degree, because it has enabled me to see for myself the happy harmony 
which has so suddenly sprung up between those engaged but a few short 
years ago in deadly conflict. It has been an inestimable blessing to me to 
hear kind expressions toward me, in person, from all parts of our country, 
from people of all nationalities, all religions and no religions, of Confed- 
erate and National troops alike, of soldiers' organizations, of mechanical, 
scientific, religioiis and other societies, embracing almost every citizen in 
■the land, They have brought joy to my heart, if they have not effected a 
cure. So, to you and your colleagues, I acknowledge my indebtedness for 
having brought me through the valley of the shadow of death to enable me 
to witness these things." 



.MKMOKIAI. ADHKESS. 17 

Ju'y IGth: "" * * After all that [sigQs of impi-ovement], however, the 
disease is still there, aud must be fatal in the end, My life is precious, of 
course, to my family, and should be to me if I could recover entirely. There 
never was one more willing to go than I. I know most people have first 
one and then another little thing to fix up, aud never get quite through. 
This was partially my case. I first wanted so many days to work on my 
book, so that the authorship would be clearly mine. It was graciously 
granted me, after being apparently much lower than I have been since, and 
with a capacity to do more work than I ever did in the same time. My book 
had been done so hastily that much of it was left out, and I did it all over 
from the crossing of the James Eiver, iu 1864, to Appomattox, in 1865. 
Since that I have added as much as fifty pages to the book, I should think. 
There is nothing more to do, and, therefore, I am not likely to be more 
ready to go than I am at this moment." 

As President, in 1876, he wrote to some Sunday-school children in 
Philadelphia: "My advice to Sunday-schools, no matter what their denom- 
ination, is: Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor to your liberties; 
write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives. To the 
influence of this book are we indebted for all progress made iu our true 
civilization, and to this we must look as our guide iu the future. 'Right- 
eousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.' " 

A few weeks ago, April 18th, he said to his pastor. Dr. Newman: "I 
believe in the Holy Scriptures, and whoever believes their teachings will be 
benefited therebj'." Dr. Newman asked him what his supreme thought 
was when all thought him dying, and he said: "The comfort from the con- 
sciousness that I had tried to live a good and honorable life." Aud among 
his last utterances he said: "I pray that we may all meet in a better world." 
This carries us up tu the border of the unseen country. The great, calm, 
resolute, upright soul marches peacefully into the unknown, and stands 
wondering and adoring in the Eternal Presence. The light of e:Iadsome rest 
lights up the warworn features. Aud we, with all the civilized families of 
man, stand, in tearful and sobbing silence, with the bereaved family, around 
the deserted camp of the old warrior. Unexpectedly, as his habit was iu 
his great engagements, the works of the last enemy are flanked, and we 
have a communication to his wife, so sweet aud tender that we forget the 
soldier, and our sorrowing hearts cling to the husband and father, as his 
letter to his wife comes back to us. 

"Look after our dear children, and direct them in the paths of recti- 
tude. It would distress me far more that one of them would depart from 
an honorable, upright and virtuous life thau it would to know that they 
were jirostrated on a bed of sickness, from which thej' were never to 
arise alive. They have never given any cause for alarm on this account, 
and I earnestly pray that they never will. With these few injunctions, 



18 liEXERAL GRANT. 

and the knowledge I have of your love and affection, and of their dutiful 
affection, I bid you a final farewell until we meet in another, and, I trust, 
a better world. You will find this on my person, after my demise." 

He approached death like a philosopher. Socrates, with the hemlock 
in his hand, was not more thoughtful. He entered into the last struggle 
like a warrior. Leonidas at Thermopylas was not more determined. He 
triumphed like a Christian. Ira3ueus, at the stake, was not more confi- 
dent. Sure of his rest in the skies, let us take one glance at his place in 
human history. I turn to the past. It is full of warriors. But among 
them all I see no Grant. I do see Napoleon, "grand, gloomy and pecu- 
liar, a sceptred hermit"; yet over his fields of glory, and over his throne, 
I read, "Selfish Ambition." I see great Csissar, of majestic stature, but 
beneath his feet is the dying Eoman Eepublic, and on his sword I read 
"Merciless Despotism.'" I see far back on the summit of the Alps stout 
old Hannibal, but the dusky warriors that obeyed his command were ma- 
rauders, living on spoils; and the spirit that spurred him to deeds of his- 
torical splendor was merciless and revengeful hatred. But here stands Grant, 
on the summit of his unprecedented deeds, in the solitude of his exalted 
character, rooted and grounded in the "arduous greatness of things 
achieved"— a soldier, who conquered a great people, and ennobled them 
by the moderation with which he used his victory; aniler who healed the 
wound in the breast of the nation and made its people one, by the impar- 
tiality of his administration; a citizen, who walked fame's most illustrious 
heights, with such unaffected simplicity that the humblest citizen is drawn 
up to nobleness by the magnetism of his example; a patriot, who wrought 
for freedom with such exalted devotion, that even the vanquished rejoice 
in his triumph. There he stands, with Washington and Lincoln, on the 
dome of these centuries, loved by his countrymen, honored by mankind, 
and to be remembered and emulated till the latest generation. 

Friends, countrymen, brothers, from the North and from the South, 
from the East and from the West, and from all lands under the stars, let 
us cling, let us cling to the memory of Grant till it warms us and melts us 
and moulds us into oneness forever. 





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